Dung good for gasoline?

Another entry in our Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Believe It Or Not Museum of Potential Energy Sources: Cow patties!

According to an AP story today, Tokyo engineering professor Sakae Shibusawa was able to turn cow dung into gasoline by applying high pressure and heat.

It figures this would be a product of Japan, which has to import virtually all its motor fuel. Of course, who knows whether this will prove out as an actual energy saver. Because, after all, you do have to use some energy to produce the heat and the pressure. But, with Japan producing half a million tons of cow patooties every year, maybe it pencils out for the Japanese.